The view from my hotel room

Brrrrrr!

It was absolutely freezing walking into work this morning. It would have been cold anyway, but with strong winds the wind chill factor made it feel like minus 10. Just as I thought I was about to go into the first stages of hypothermia, a warm glow suddenly came over me when when I remembered I'll soon be basking in the warmth of the Brisbane sun. My experience of Winter from now on will be a bone shuddering 25 degrees centigrade!

Success - settlement offer from Barclays!

Like many, I've downloaded the templates off Martin Lewis' site moneysavingexpert.com to try and reclaim unlawful punitive bank charges over the last 6 years. I worked it out, and after having a bad year 4 years ago when I kept hovering around my overdraft limit, I racked up approx £1100 worth of unauthorised overdraft charges.

After sending them a letter demanding it back, with interest, I came home this weekend to find I've received a settlement offer from them which states:

May I say how sorry I am to learn that you feel the bank charges you have incurred are unfair. In you correspondence you have referred to elements which you feel support your claim. Barclays is aware of the information you have drawn to our attention. I must inform you, however, that we disagree with your view.

When an account is opened with us, our customer is provided with a copy of the Terms and Conditions relating to the use of their account; including details of our charges. This information clearly explains our obligations to our customer, as well as their obligations to us. If we make any changes to the Terms and Conditions, we provide details of these changes to our customers in line with the Banking Code. Details of our Terms and Conditions, along with our charging tariff, can be obtained at any of our branches, or via our internet site, www/woolwich.co.uk/barclays.co.uk.

Despite my comments above in relation to your views, on this occasion, and without any admissions of liability, I am willing to offer the sum of £860.00 towards the total amount you are seeking. This is with the cost and inconvenience inherent in a further dispute in mind and is intended as a gesture of goodwill, in full and final settlement of your complaint. If you would like to accept my offer please sign and return the enclosed form in the pre-paid enveloped provided. I will arrange for the payment to be credited to your account within seven working days of receipt of your acceptance at this office.

So, shall I accept or stick to my guns and hold out for the full amount?

I've had a look through the advice posted in the forums as well as the main articles on moneysavingexpert.com, and my conclusion is this:

Most of the success stories on moneysavingexpert.com state that they were either offered the full amount in the first instance, or they rejected the first offer, started small claims court proceedings, and then the banks quickly paid the full amount. However, there is an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) ruling expected within the next couple of weeks that could change the situation.

The OFT are due to make a ruling on unfair bank charges within the first few days of April, and are likely to say the banks should be charging no more than £12, even though in actual fact independent experts agree that it costs the banks no more than £4.50. My charges were initially £20 and then rose to £25. I've worked out the mean average and it's roughly £22. Which means, after the OFT ruling, the banks will likely only agree to pay the difference, in my case this would be £10 per charge. So based on my 54 charges that would work out at £540 - so at this point the £860 offer looks a good one.

Now of course the OFT ruling doesn't bind the courts. I could still take Barclays to court and it would be up to them to demonstrate to the courts that it costs them more than £4.50 per penalty charge.

Martin's summary conclusion is that after the OFT ruling you are MORE likely to get some money back without a fight, but LESS likely to get all your money back without a fight.

Taking all of that into account, and the fact that we're hoping to emigrate within weeks, and have much more pressing issues to deal with, my own conclusion is that I'm going to accept their offer. I could probably get more back if I pushed it, but I've neither the time nor the inclination given our present circumstances.

This doesn't mean I'm grateful to Barclays. They had absolutely no right charging £25 for an unauthorised overdraft fee when the law clearly states that punitive charges must be no more than the actual cost incurred by the bank. What's more, even though hundreds of thousands of us are reclaiming our bank charges it's obviously having little affect on their bottom line given the amount of profit the banks have announced this year.

Fight the bastards. Consumer power - I love it!!

High on life!

I had a night out last night with my mates for the first time since, well actually I think it's the first time this year (how sad is that!). Rach also went out with her mates (the 'school mums') and we met up at the end of the night and came home together. It's funny that in 7 years we've never actually done that before - usually it's me staying in babysitting or vica-versa (less so - Rach has got more mates than me). It made a refreshing change. For the first time in a long time I felt high on life last night. It must be because everything's finally coming together.

There's also another reason. It may sound silly but I've been reading a book in the last week which has had a profound effect on me. The book is Yes Man by Danny Wallace. You know, Danny Wallace - the bloke who's currently presenting Castaway on BBC1 and did that series on BBC2 last year where he started his own country. Well in this one he basically decides to say yes to everything for a year, saying yes to every favour, request, suggestion and invitation. There's a bit of background to how it starts and why he does it, but the results are quite spectacular and should be a lesson to us all. It has certainly changed my outlook on life. I know it's only a book and some of the events may be exaggerated or made up for dramatic effect, but there's a clear message that begins to appear about halfway through the book - which is by being positive and open to new experiences, in general, good things will happen and you'll be a much happier and content person.

If you think about it, I bet all the best things that have happened in your life came about because you said yes to something. Like for me, I met Rach and we now have our beautiful daughter because one day 7 years ago I said yes to going out on her work leaving do even though I didn't really know her at the time. And now, we're about to start a whole new adventure because we're opening ourselves up to new experiences and opportunities. It's a bit extreme, I know, emigrating to the other side of the world, but if you don't say yes to things, your life will never change. It makes me laugh the number of people who have asked us why we're moving to Australia. My retort is: why should we not move to Australia?

I'd encourage everyone to take a risk every now and again and try something new, perhaps even something life-changing like we're doing. After all, is this really the best life is going to get? Don't you want something more? Don't you want to experience new places and new cultures?

I appreciate we're lucky and not everyone has the opportunities we do to make this move. No matter what your circumstances however, I strongly believe life will improve if you take a few risks and say YES. It's the same with money and business. Most of the multi-millionaire entrepreneurs got where they are today because they took risks and gave it a go. I've recently read Duncan Bannatyne's autobiography: Anyone Can Do It. He built his business group up on the back of spending a few quid on an ice cream van, and then took huge risks quickly expanding his business, nearly bankrupting himself in the process. Anyway, my main point is not about taking risks so much as about saying yes, but I guess the two can go hand in hand. Let's face it, we say no to things most of the time because we're either worried about the consequences, or we're worried about the unknown and the lack of control that saying yes might bring. Sometimes we also say no simply because we can't be bothered and it's too easy to say no. For instance, normally, I would have probably turned down the offer of a night out last night. My default position would be I've hard a hard week, my train doesn't get in to late and I just want to chill out in front of the TV. However, I decided to say yes and I ended up having a really good time. I don't think I've laughed so much in years.

Say Yes to reading this book, it will change your outlook on life:


Oh by the way, yesterday I still didn't make the 16:18 from Manchester Piccadilly!

Is the end of our house about to fall off?

A surveyor came today to look at the house on behalf of the buyers. It seems to have worked out ok but we were worried for a while. You see for some time now a crack has been developing in the plaster running floor to ceiling in our bathroom, just at the point where we have a full house extension. The crack seems to be confined to the plaster and not the outer wall, but it does seem too much of a coincidence that it's where it is, and who says it won't develop to the outer wall?

Anyway, it's not very ethical I know but we did a patch it and paint it job and the surveyor never seemed to notice it. I just hope to God the buyer isn't sat in the bath one day in the future and then suddenly find themselves bathing in the garden surrounded by rubble!

Destined to never make the 16:18 from Piccadilly

Every Friday I try and make the 16:18 from Manchester Piccadilly to go home for the weekend, and every week I fail and have to wait another hour for the 17:18. I've come close on a couple of occasions - actually getting as far as watching the train move away just as I get to the platform. But normally I'm about 2 or 3 minutes out.

You see the client I'm working for now has got this stupid rule that I have to work my allotted hours never starting earlier than 8am or any later than 10am and never leaving any earlier than 4pm or any later than 6pm. If only I could get out 3 minutes early I would be ok, but no, I'm destined to never make the 16:18!

I've been trying to work out the schedule of the Manchester metro system which I use to get between my place of work and the station, but I've realised this is a futile exercise. The trams are quite regular but they conspire against me to ensure I never quite reach my destination in time. I've tried a few different options. First I waited for the tram that takes my all the way, then I tried getting on the first available tram which doesn't go to my destination but will get me halfway, and after getting off I speed-walked, suitcase trailing behind me giving everyone in front of me the dead-eye to make sure they got out my way. But no - still didn't make it.

Last week I thought I had it. Every week I've been buying tickets to use the metro before I get on, just as you're supposed to, but I started to notice that hardly anyone else was bothering. I also realised that in all the time I've been in Manchester I've never actually been asked to produce a ticket. So last week, I got to the tram stop and low and behold a tram turned up straight away. So instead of risking trying to get a ticket on the platform before the tram pulls away again, I just jumped straight on without purchasing the ticket. The tram wasn't going to my destination so I got off at the half-way point and low and behold again, another tram turned up on the adjacent platform just as I was getting off which would take me to the station. So I jumped straight on board, confident that I would finally make the 16:18. However, the next thing I heard was "tickets please". Shit! You see what I mean about destined never to make it in time. Anyway, I jumped straight off again to avoid what I guessed would be a heavy fine.

Now you could say that if I'd have bought a ticket last week in advance I would have made it, so maybe if the trams are in synch again this week and I've got a ticket, I will in fact finally make it. No chance. The stars will align, the wind will be blowing in the wrong direction, the cows will all be lying down, the birds will be flying backwards, and all the other universal factors will come into play to ensure that I never, ever, make the 16:18 from Piccadilly.

And so it begins..

It seems funny that it's a year since my last post where I rejoiced the fact that we had finally received our visa, and yet it's only now that we're in a position where we're confident it's actually going to happen.

The reason it's been a year is simply because that's how long it has taken us to sell our house. In fact, it's been longer than that because we originally put the house on the market when we first started the visa process, then took it off again because it wasn't selling, and then finally put it on again when we got the visa. What a nightmare! But finally it is sold (subject to contract):


The buyers aren't in a chain so it looks like we could be emigrating in weeks, rather than years which it was beginning to look like. I suppose it hasn't really sunk in yet. I guess I ought to start planning - we're not just moving house, we're moving life!

Now things are actually happening and I don't feel in suspended animation anymore I guess I'll finally have something to write about. Actually I'm kidding myself, quite a lot has happened in the last year. For a start, we went back to Oz a second time at the end of last year. Mainly out of necessity than the desire for a holiday. When you receive your PR (permanent residency) visa you have a year to validate the visa or it expires. What that basically means is that we each had to get a stamp on our visa in Australia, and because the visa didn't get granted until we we're in Singapore on our way out to Oz the first time, it was too late to get the visa included in our passports for when we entered Oz - bummer! Of course, we completely expected to have sold the house within a short time after returning from our recce trip so didn't think the validation deadline would be a big issue. How wrong were we! It's not even as if they take the date as being a year from when the visa is granted - it's actually a year from when they received the medical and police checks prior to granting the visa, which for us was the beginning of Feb - 6 weeks before getting the visa.

We could have done without the expense of having to take another trip to Oz within a year. Don't get me wrong, we had a fantastic time again, but it was £££ that we could have used for settling into our new lives. The whole reason why we couldn't emigrate before selling the house, i.e. not rent it out instead or leave it on sale while we start our new life in Oz, is because we need the equity in the house to pay off our debts and cover the risk of going to Oz without a job lined up prior to landing.

Besides taking a second trip to Oz, I've also finally left my cushy permanent job and started IT contracting under my own limited company - something I've been wanting to do for ages but until now have never had the balls to do. I'm now halfway through my first and what looks likely to be my last contract, at least in the UK anyway. It's been a good experience, and there's definitely some upsides to contracting - some downsides too, which I roughly summarise as:

Upsides

• Financially lucrative: the rates are excellent and it will definitely give us that extra bit of money to cover us for a few months in Oz, just in case it takes me time to find a new job
• New learning experience: I'm consulting for a large company so I'm learning a lot about how large companies work and I'll be able to to take that with me for future jobs
• Different work relationship: because I'm not a permanent employee of the company there's no expectation to stay late or do overtime as there is with permanent positions, they're basically paying me for a given number of hours and if they want any extra I have to agree to it, at my rate

Downsides
The major downside is I couldn't find a contract near where I live so I'm having to work away during the week in Manchester. I suppose you could look at the positives of this because I'm beginning to realise that Manchester is a cool city, however, I did my stint of working away from home when I was in the Navy for 7 1/2 years - I'm a home bird now. Plus, I've now got a 5 year old daughter as well who I'm only getting to see at the weekends, as well as Rach of course. I'm actually writing this now from the loneliness of my hotel room, sob sob.

There's been other stuff of course which has happened in the last year but really it's the future that matters - so I guess I ought to start writing my Emigration Action Plan!